A Change in the Force
by Contramancer
Summary: Response to whitetigerwolf's Mutant Jedi challenge. When Luke and Vader die at the battle of Yavin, Leia uses the Force to find some way, some one to save her galaxy, and her heart. Reaching between broken realities, she drags the X-men from a trap between dimensions, to fight for a galaxy that may well fear and despise them. Rating applies for later themes.
1. Chapter 1

_A Change in the Force._

_Contramancer's Disclaimer: I do not own either the X-Men or Star Wars. The following fanfiction story is most assuredly __not__canon by any measure, and is written solely for the pleasure of writing and having it read._

_A response to Whitetigerwolf's Mutant Jedi Challenge._

Mutant Jedi Challenge

What happens when a group of X-men end up in the Star Wars universe?

_Responses are listed in parentheses after each item of the challenge._

Requirements:

ONLY 4 X-men can get sent to the Star Wars universe. [Role call- From the X-men: Nightcrawler, Rogue, Shadowcat, Wolverine. From a loophole, and to make the story more interesting: Mystique{Brotherhood affiliation}, Sabretooth {Brotherhood}, Warhead {OC}].

If Wolverine is one of the X-men, Adamantium must be one of the few things a lightsabre cannot cut through. [While in theory, the technology in the SW universe might be capable of synthesizing adamantium, the only samples in the story are inside Wolverine, unless he's popped his claws].

No M/M slash. [Done].

No Cyclops or Gambit (I hate them both), sent to the Star Wars unverse. [My X-men are taken loosely from the movie series, so Cyke is dead, Gambit is somewhere in Nawlins {hope he gets eaten by a Gator}, and my Sentinels/MRD are gonna take out a few mutants in the prologue].

The mutants must keep their powers, as well as be able to use the Force. [Wolverine and Warhead are the only mutants who cannot use the Force, for reasons explained in-story].

The mutants must be trained as Jedi. [Trained by Yoda, they shall be].

Recommended:

As they are the only time periods I am familiar with, please keep the bulk of the story during either KOTOR, the prequel trilogy or the original trilogy. [A major reshuffle will occur at a shatterpoint near the end of A New Hope].

Don't use Jean/Phoenix (her powers seem kinda redundant with the Force unless you make her some super-powerful Force user). [See above comment on Cyclops and Gambit].

Pair Wolverine with a jedi or a senator. [Leia. In my story, things are gonna get really interesting at the shatterpoint].

Send Wolverine/Shadowcat/Rogue to the Star Wars universe. [See above comment on Cyclops and Gambit].

De-ageing in transit so that the mutants can be accepted as Jedi (if you do this, please let them retain their memories). [Declined. The era they wind up in precludes the de-ageing option].

Rogue/Shadowcat pairing. [I can do this, but they are probably going to find Warhead part of their relationship, too].

Wolverine/Storm pairing. [See above comment on Cyclops and Gambit].

Wolverine/Jean pairing. [See above comment on Cyclops and Gambit].

_**Chapter 1: Two Worlds, One Destiny.**_

_Time and space are more fragile than people think. Imagine, if you will, that they are filled with key points at which pressure from something as simple as a single man's decision can shatter the stream of what should have happened. These shatterpoints are a constantly changing presence, but they always exist. Occasionally, two such shatterpoints connect, forging a transition from what should be, to what no-one could have guessed _would_be..._

_It is two such shatterpoints that concern us now, in two different universes. Both key moments in a battle for freedom, both about to suffer the stress of shattering._

_Somewhere, a butterfly beats its wings..._

**A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...**

Luke Skywalker gritted his teeth, trying to force himself to relax, to let the Force flow through him. Despite the impact from Vader's last-second burst of laser fire as the _Falcon _forced him from the trench by blasting out the Sith Lord's wingmen, his fire controls were functioning fine. "_Now,_" he realised, squeezing the trigger to launch his proton torpedoes on _just_ the right course to nail the open exhaust port, a target barely larger than a wamp-rat.

"They're in," he yelled over his comlink, and he heard the cheering as he pulled back on the joystick to lift his X-wing from the Death Star's trench. Barely clearing the solid wall of metal, he felt the impact as one of his S-foils was torn from the fighter, sending him into a tumbling spiral he had no hope of controlling. Maybe if he'd had a few more days on the simulators, but the arrival of the massive battle station had very nearly caught the Rebellion with their pants down.

"I'm in a spin," he announced, much more calmly than he thought he was. "Can't pull out in time. Sorry, Leia. Good-b..." Silence fell, the cheers cutting off as the comlink was filled with a sudden, horrid static as the X-wing skipped off the Death Star's surface several times before exploding, just moments before the battle station followed suit, even as it discharged the planet-killing super-laser.

The beam, thrown off by the destruction of the battle station designed to support it, flared out into empty space, striking an out-of-control advanced TIE prototype. Lord Vader's personal fighter.

In the command room, Leia Organa felt something, a shockwave of some kind, a sudden cry and absence through some connection she couldn't explain, as if two people who were almost part of her were torn from her and cast into the darkness. Even before the lag in communications caught up, she _knew_ Luke was dead, and that he could have been incredibly important to her. She _knew_ the Sith Lord was gone, and that he could have been saved from the Dark Side by the right person, her or... her twin! Luke was her brother! Vader was their father! The sudden inrush of insight and knowledge very nearly broke her mind, and as the comlink spat out Luke's last words, she was already screaming, reaching with this unknown connection to the universe, for something, _someone_ to help hold her to sanity.

"NNOOOOOOO!"

* * *

**Somewhere in Upstate New York...**

Leo's motorcycle roared as he pushed it to the limit, striving to stay ahead of the armoured vehicle that pursued him, taking the corners way too fast. They were herding him, steering him deeper into the city, and firing at him with energy-based weaponry, as if they were _trying_ to push him to his flashpoint, wanting him to explode. He'd taken a few hits, soaking in the energy, some kind of coherent electricity, and he was very close, a couple more shots and boom...

His full name was Leonidas Jasper Mars, and he was a mutant. He'd been trying to control his powers for the past four years, not an easy thing to do when you're a walking nuclear reaction, and had been on the Mutant Response Division's watch-list, hit-list would be a better word, for roughly the same amount of time. It was the events in San Francisco the previous year that brought the X-men to his attention, and he had set out in desperation to see if they would help him.

The sudden burst of flame that reared up on front of him was a bad thing. True, it was aimed more at the MRD truck behind him, but that didn't really matter as he sucked in the heat and light that made it up on contact. _"Shit, shit, shit..._" He was barely containing himself now, he really didn't want to take another hit for about an hour. He managed to bring his Harley to a screeching halt without crashing, though he was certain he'd never figure out how.

A quick look around showed him he wasn't alone. The MRD 'capture' squad were scrambling from their vehicle, the lead 'agent', read 'assassin' in his opinion, screaming out some crap about unregistered mutant, blah, blah, threat to security, ramble, ramble, taking him in, yeah right. The problem was, if they shot him again, his minimum safe distance would vaporise everything for at least three blocks in a blast of nuclear fire. They were going to use him as an example of 'anti-human terrorism'.

Then he saw them, the mutants. They weren't the X-men, oh, no. The boy, a little younger than himself playing around with the fire from his zippo, that was Pyro, the blue chick with everything on display was Mystique, the massive hairy feral that was Sabertooth, and last but most assuredly not least, the leader of the so-called Brotherhood, Magneto. Apparently the 'mutant cure' he'd heard of was a temporary fix. "_Shit..._"

A gesture, and the MRD truck crumpled like tinfoil, crushing inwards into a ball. The master of magnetism didn't mess around. "You see them, don't you, Mr Mars," he said. "Pitiful, hate-filled wastes of oxygen, scrambling to drag down their betters. Whereas we, why, we would welcome you with open arms. Come, join the Brotherhood, and we shall help you."

"How long?" Leo asked. "How long would I receive this 'help', before you decided to unleash my powers on humans? My parents are humans, my friends are human, my fiancee is... was a human." He almost choked on that, the wounds were still fresh. "I don't want revenge, Magneto. I just want to control myself."

" And we can..." The older mutant's reply was cut off by the MRD troopers firing indiscriminately. No doubt any damage would be blamed on the 'mutant terrorists'. Leo ducked behind his bike to avoid the blast that would have overcharged his capacity, while Magneto intercepted the shots with metal plates torn from the MRD truck.

As the Brotherhood Mutants moved to join the fight, Magneto tried once more. "We can help you with your control problems, Mr Mars, and you've seen what these humans are going to do to you."

"Heard you the first time, still not interested. I don't want to be anybody's personal nuclear warhead, Magneto." Leo grimaced. With his luck, that name would probably stick. Ducking from behind his bike, he unleashed a torrent of plasma at one of the troopers, more accurately at his weapon. The energy rifle flashed through red- yellow- and white-hot before disintegrating, searing the trooper's gloves into smoking.

The head agent of the MRD squad was screaming something into his communicator, and the brotherhood were mopping the street with the troopers, when the X-men arrived. "_Oh, finally,_" Leo thought, as he heaved a sigh of relief. "_Maybe this is a good day, after all._"

Led by Storm, the white-haired African-american, and Wolverine, the short and hairy Canadian, it wasn't a full roster of the team, by any means. There was Iceman, glimmering with the shell of frost around his body, Colossus, almost seven feet tall and made of metal (a glaring tactical disadvantage against Magneto, but visually impressive), Nightcrawler, the German teleporter who resembled a demon, Shadowcat, the girl who walked through walls, and Rogue, the power-thief. From what he could recall, and see, the girls were still only sixteen or so, the boys a little older, and the blue-furred German a little more than that. All of them clad in those form-fitting black leather outfits, each slightly customised for the wearer.

It was just as he was feeling relief at their arrival that he heard the agent's rant turn into a calm, orderly command. "Roach motel, I repeat, roach motel. All bugs are in the box, send in the big boots."

For a moment, he wondered what the man was talking about, before the realisation struck. Roach motel: bugs check in, they don't check out. Looking up he saw two, three, five... Five Sentinels. The sixty-foot-tall mutant-killing robots. The ground shook from the impact of the massive machines landing, and every single mutant looked up at them. Except Wolverine and Sabertooth. Those two were busy trying to carve steaks off each other with their respective claws.

Storm shot into the sky, immediately gathering the local weather into a massive thunderhead, striking out at the giant robots with lightning, as Colossus wedged his fingers beneath one and heaved, disturbing its centre of gravity enough to topple it over. Shadowcat ran through the metal of the Sentinels' hulls, grabbing at electronic systems in an attempt to shut down the mutant-killing machines. Nightcrawler was providing a good distraction, teleporting around the field, and 'arriving' MRD weapons embedded into Sentinels' joint mechanisms. Meanwhile, Rogue approached the young man near the fallen motorcycle, staying low so as not to draw attention to herself.

"Are you okay?" Her question, delivered in a Southern drawl similar to his own, though a little more pronounced, dragged Leo's attention to her. She was pretty, he noticed, and the single white lock in her hair simply made her unique.

"I've been chased by MRD since Huntsville, gotten no sleep for the past three days, the last thing I ate was a couple of stale Twinkies yesterday for breakfast, and I'm one shock away from turning this neighbourhood into Ground Zero, but other than that, just peachy." Mentally, he slapped himself, berating himself for the sarcasm. Standing, he unleashed a really big stream of nuclear power at the nearest Sentinel, searing through the giant robot's faceplate and frying the circuitry inside. As the robot toppled across the one Colossus had dropped, pinning it, he dropped down again. "M'name's Leo Mars, folks'll probably be tagging me with Warhead, on account of, I explode."

"Marie. They call me Rogue," she replied. "D'you think if I absorbed your powers, you might not go boom?"

"Tried that once," he said, repeating himself as the first answer was drowned out by the prone yet active Sentinel blasting its way out from under the defunct one. "Got me some of that mutant cure, y'know?" Busy lashing out at the giant robots, he missed her wince. " Problem was, it just triggered my explosion, taking out the public restroom I was hiding in."

A blast seared past them, a beam of eye-searing light and heat. Leo's mutation enabled him to see a much wider spectrum than most people, from deep in the ultraviolet, to high in the infrared. As a result, he _knew_ how deadly that beam was, but there was little he could do as it burned through Colossus' metal hide, gouging away most of the young Russian's torso. Iceman took a glancing hit, his frozen shell shattering like glass and vaporising instantly, protecting him to a degree, but he still had third-degree burns covering his right side, and collapsed in agony.

Colossus knew he was as good as dead. He didn't feel anything, for now, at least, but the second he returned to flesh and blood, end of story. Even in his osmium steel form, his vision was going grey. He struggled over to Rogue and the young mutant they'd come to save. They might have found him sooner, but with no telepath to make Cerebro more than a six-story paperweight, they were forced to use more mundane means to locate mutants. He gasped. "_Okay, is a little pain, is weakness leaving the body, da?_"

"Rogue," he said, his voice barely audible over the clash of battle, "my powers, you must take them, use them, alright? Protect our friends, da?"

"Peter, no, no, you'll be alright, we'll get you back to Dr McCoy,he'll..." Her rambling was cut off by the nuclear mutant next to her placing a finger on her lips. Leo knew what was going on.

"He's not going to last that long," he said, sadly, as Rogue looked up at him. "He wants you to have his powers to protect your friend, are you going to deny him that?"

Shadowcat was there suddenly, next to them. Her crush on the muscular Russian was something she'd thought she'd have time to identify, and now he was dying. As tears filled her eyes, she saw Rogue remove one of her gloves, and reach out to lay her skin on Colossus' cheek. Black veins stood out on both the girl and the young man, as his powers and memories flowed into her. As she did, she saw Shadowcat take Leo's _bare_ hand in hers, the same hand he'd just laid across Rogue's lips to calm her.

Above them, Storm had finally gathered enough potential in the thunderhead to work with, and Wolverine called the battle plan, having dropped Sabertooth again, at least temporarily. There was a break in the fight, too. Magneto was straining himself, but he was holding all four remaining Sentinels immobile, as blood trickled from his nose at the stress he was putting his aged body through.

"Elf!" roared the metal-clawed mutant. "Get ready to jump us out. Once everyone's clear, Storm'll hammer these tinker-toys into scrap metal and fried parts."

"You... don't... have... long." Magneto was forcing his voice to work, and the strain showed in every syllable. He'd not fully recovered from the massive doses of 'mutant cure' that had been forced into his system. "I can't... hold them... forever." Sweat was running down his face, a sure sign he was nearing his limits. "You'll... only... get one... shot."

"Gott in Himmel," prayed the German teleporter. He'd _never _teleported so many before, nor under such conditions. The mutants quickly gathered, Mystique joining them. Magneto had to stay put, or the Sentinels would scotch their plans in short order. Nightcrawler forced his powers to function at a level they never had before, pushing beyond his limits, certain he was going to be feeling this one for a long time to come. In a burst of black, sulphurous smoke, they teleported. It was at that very instant that everything went wrong.

Agent Carver was a very tough man. He awoke, in pain, yes, push it aside, and drew his side-arm, an energy-based pistol, of a smaller scale than the rifles, but only slightly less effective. He saw the large and feral mutant called Sabertooth leap, plunging his claws into the mutant called Wolverine, and the whole group began to disappear into that freaky cloud of smoke. So he fired wildly, desperate to not let them escape. He saw the blast strike home on the young man they were calling Warhead, saw his eyes widen, and then saw nothing as Storm unleashed the lightning and brought the fury of the skies down on the Sentinels.

Later, at the Xavier Institute, the weather-wielding mutant would explain to a badly injured Magneto that the others were gone, nowhere to be found.

**Somewhere that is nowhere, in a gap between dimensions...**

It could be described as hellish. There was no up, no down, nothing to see, nothing to hear. The only points of reference they had were the points at which they were in contact. Normally, when Nightcrawler teleported, he was in this place-that-wasn't for such a tiny fraction of a second that most quantum physicists would dismiss it as non-existent. But this was by no means a normal situation. His power was overloaded, by the sheer number of people he was carrying. Even if Sabertooth had attacked Wolverine at the exact moment of teleportation, the German mutant might still have managed to control his power long enough to bring them out safely.

But Warhead had been shot. The energy blast had overloaded _his _powers too, and pushed him into a catastrophic release. The young man had tried to be noble, and let go of Nightcrawler, only to find himself grabbed by both Shadowcat and Rogue. So his detonation occurred _between _realities, hardly a good thing for the stability of an already shaky teleport. As streaks of light began to appear, almost like stars racing past in a _Star Trek_ episode, as the cold began to reach them, as the barrier between worlds broke open...

...There! A connection! A tiny ray of hope that had died once, flared to life. Leia, collapsed, passing into unconsciousness. The Force, the unknown connection between all things, reached out and plucked the hope of the galaxy, and the heart of this princess from the gap between realities, the torn trails of hyperspace.

Sitting on a log in the middle of the swamps of Dagobah, an old, wrinkled, green-skinned being smiled. _"The ways of the Force, many and mysterious are._"


	2. Chapter 2

_A Change in the Force._

_Contramancer's Disclaimer: I do not own either the X-Men or Star Wars. The following fanfiction story is most assuredly __not__canon by any measure, and is written solely for the pleasure of writing and having it read._

_A response to Whitetigerwolf's Mutant Jedi Challenge._

_**Chapter 2: Darkness and Light.**_

**In a gap between realities...**

Logan, Wolverine as some called him, had growled in pain as Sabertooth dug his clawed hand into the stocky mutant's back, just as Nightcrawler dragged them along on his teleportation. Despite this he was fully cognizant of the blast that struck the unidentified mutant. "_What was it Mags called him? Mr Mars? Obviously not a codename._"

The overloading of Nighcrawler's powers had caused a delay in transit, stretching out the teleportation by several fractions of a second. Critical fractions as it turned out. Although the young man had tried to let go, from deliberate choice, Logan thought, the two youngest in the team had caught hold of him, so when his energy cascaded into a catastrophic release, read explosion, he and the others had been in this un-place, the gap between dimensions that allowed Nightcrawler to slide along the outside of the unverse in order to teleport. Physics here were clearly different to anything they could imagine, so his detonation didn't hurt anyone. It did, however, tear apart the fragile un-space, dumping them into another place, where the stars raced past them so quickly as to be lines, and propelled them forwards, towards some unknown destination.

It was then, as they each began to feel the lack of air, although Rogue subconsciously switched to her new metal body, that the feral mutant felt something... no, someone! Someone had reached out, not unlike Charles used to, but it was _very_ different, more emotional and raw, with nothing like filters or shields at all, and taken hold of his mind and soul. It wasn't violent, but it was wild, untrained. A brief image sprang into his mind, a young woman with her long brown hair braided and coiled into two buns on the sides of her head, screaming in pain and fear and loss, feeling all alone. He _knew_, without understanding how, that he had a choice, accept this link, this bond, and become her champion, her warrior, or deny it, and let her go entirely mad, unleashing a dark terror upon this galaxy, this reality.

"_Why am I always the sucker?_" he thought briefly, even as he took hold of the link, and made it part of him.

In that fraction of a second, three things happened. First, Warhead's absorbed energy ran dry, snapping them back into reality, even if it wasn't the same reality they'd left. Second, Sabertooth lashed out, kicking at Shadowcat and Nightcrawler. Kurt was disoriented, and totally unprepared for the impact that sent him spiralling away through the dense fog that was omnipresent here, whereever here was that they'd appeared. He managed to catch hold of Mystique, for all the good that did, tearing her grip away from Logan and plunging them into the mists. Kitty was prepared, but if she phased she would lose contact with both Logan and Leo, so she hesitated a fraction too long, and the kick forced her to choose one or the other. Wolverine could handle himself, while Leo was an unknown; a nuclear-powered unknown, but still. With that, she, Rogue and Warhead also became seperated. Third, although none present could know it, a distant princess of a dead world collapsed into a tortured sleep, where the terrors that came to claim her mind were driven off by a warrior with three blades emerging from each hand.

* * *

**The Swamps of Dagobah (Shadowmarsh).**

Kurt Wagner, the blue-furred mutant called Nightcrawler, plummeted through the mist, his innate acrobatic prowess barely enough in his condition to avoid the brances and vines that appeared out of the fog with no warning, and with Mystique over his shoulder, it was just a matter of time until he couldn't. Each glancing contact stole a little more momentum from their fall, even if he hurt too much to teleport right now, gradually turning their headlong plummeting into something survivable... he hoped. Their impact, fortuitously enough, was on water, at a sufficient angle to skip four or five times (he'd lost count after the third) before coming to rest in the mud and muck. Raising his head, he saw a long, dark cave in the stump of what had once been a truly massive tree. As he watched, exhausted and nearly helpless, the Brotherhood shapeshifter struggled to her feet. Sneering, she raised her sidearm, a large calibre handgun, he couldn't guess the exact make, but it was an autoloader, aimed directly at his heart and squeezed the trigger.

Her effort was rewarded by a squelching sound, and thick, black mud running from the weapon's muzzle. There was a frozen sience for a few moments, broken only by the sounds of the nearby water, then Kurt chuckled. It began as a soft, wry laugh, infectious enough that Mystique involuntarily joined in. That was, for some reason, enough to trigger the acrobatic mutant's laughter to grow, which escalated hers, until they were both laughing so hard at the vagaries of chance that they had trouble standing.

"Zo, truce?" suggested the German mutant. "Dat vay, you and I vill not need to kill each other until ve find our comrades, ja?" A wry smirk crossed his blue face, and his sulfur-yellow eyes glinted in the little light they had. Those portions of him that lay in the shadows were, as usual, virtually invisible.

"Very well," Mystique looked across the small distance between them. "But only because I owe you one for getting me down here alive."

Shortly thereafter, the two blue mutants picked a direction, and began their search.

* * *

**The Swamps of Dagobah (Spiderglades).**

Marie, Kitty and Leo careened through the fog, each dealing with the obstructions that lashed at them in their own way. Kitty Pryde's method was to simply phase her body, shifting it slightly out of synch with the physical world, allopwing the branches to pass through her without effect. Rogue's method was to ignore those same obstacles, letting them snap and break against her new metallic form. Wood meets organic osmium steel, no contest. Leo, resigned to being called Warhead now, not that it didn't fit him, of course, lashed out with blasts of nuclear energy, the same plasma created by stellar fusion, albeit tightly controlled by his powers. These blasts served two purposes: First, obliterating, if not disintegrating, the obstructions that rose up in front of him (he'd learned the hard way that he couldn't absorb kinetic or sonic energy) and second, the recoil from each blast slowed their headlong descent somewhat. When they struck the trees, Rogue smashed through them into the clearing beyond. The impact caused the trio to spin as they hit the swamp-water, with Warhead on the bottom, and Rogue on top of him.

Under other circumstances, which would have included not being immersed in a meter of water, the black-haired young man might have enjoyed the situation, at least enough to tease the girl about it. As it was, however, such concerns as breathing were quickly becoming an issue, particularly as Rogue had not yet reverted from her metal form yet.

With the steel-skinned Marie concerned with Leo, it fell to Kitty to be the first to spot the danger. A huge creature, that she at first took to be stand of odd trees, moved towards the teenage mutants quickly, too fast for them to react. The strange beast had eight legs and eyes, but that was where all similarities with a terrestrial spider ended. The limbs and eyes were arranged radially, in a circular pattern around the thing's bloated central body, with its mouth underneath the whole thing. It bore down upon them two prone mutants, ignoring Shadowcat, and slashed down at them with two of its legs. Rogue barely managed to catch them, one in each hand, and the angle at which she'd done so denied her the leverage to do much more. Worse, from the mutants' point of view, Warhead was still trapped underneath the metallic mutant.

Kitty wasn't sure what she could do, but she grabbed a broken branch, long and sharp, if jagged, as a makeshift spear. Phasing it through the monster's carapace, she let go, allowing the spear to become solid once more... inside the creature. The horrible keening screech it let out suggested the pain to be significant, and it began lashing out at her with one of its spare legs. If she'd been fully corporeal, she'd have really been hurt.

Leo had had enough. It was getting hard to breathe. He struggled hard, freeing his right arm and raising it past Rogue's side, and unleashing a stream of plasma straight up, vaporising the water in his immediate vicinity, long enough to take a deep breath, and searing a massive hole through the spiderish creature. Pain, and something it perceived as fire, were enough to cause the beast to flee back into the surrounding swamp. As the water rushed into the gap around the mutants, Kitty helped her friend and Leo to get to their feet.

Locating solid ground, the trio struggled over to it, and sat down hard. Falling would not have been too strong a word. The nuclear mutant looked at the the two pretty girls.

"Introductions are best, agreed?" he asked. "I'll start things off. Leonidas Jasper Mars, called Warhead. I'm from Huntsville, and I'm eighteen. I got me degrees in nuclear physics, regular physics and astrophysics. My powers are nuclear in nature, I can generate nuclear plasma with a fair degree of control, and absorb most forms of energy. Too much, and I explode, the technical term is catastrophic release. And you?"

Rogue spoke up from her position flat on her back, having returned to flesh and blood. "Marie D'Ancanto, Rogue. I can absorb people's powers an' memories, even something of their personality, through skin contact. Catch is, if I hold on too long, it's permanent and kills them. Like Peter." Having basically admitted to herself that she'd killed the metallic Russian mutant, Rogue was surprised when both her companions took hold of her shoulders, one for each.

"Not your fault," Kitty said. "I saw the hole through him, he wouldn't have survived going back to a human form." The tears were flowing down both girls' cheeks now. Turning to Leo, she introduced herself. "Katherine 'Kitty' Pryde, Shadowcat. I slip out of phase with solid matter, and I can disrupt electronics by passing through them. Of course, I can't disrupt what I can't reach, so..."

As the three mutants lay there, they felt something touch them, gently, like Charles Xavier brushing against their minds, not that Warhead knew it. The last time he'd met a telepath had been with his fiancee, and the subject was still painful to think about. Struggling to their feet, the trio set off in the direction of the call.

* * *

**The Swamps of Dagobah (Dragonsnake Bog).**

Sabertooth made sure that Logan was the one who smashed into and through the various branches and vines that came out of the mist, digging the claws on both hands deep into the shorter mutant's back and holding onto the adamantium-laced this was painful for Logan goes without saying, but the unbreakable nature of his his skeleton, combined with his unbelievably rapid healing factor meant that the hurt was fleeting. It still hurt.

As the two feral mutants plunged towards the surface of the swamp, there was a ripple in the murky water, as though something massive were passing close to the surface. When they hit said surface at a fairly high speed, Logan hit first, stunning him for a moment, but that moment was all his vicious opponent needed, switching his grip and preparing to tear out Wolverine's throat.

It was at that point that the massive reptile they would later find was called a dragonsnake reared up from the water, striking towards them with almost blinding speed. Sabertooth dodged, stumbling a little from his burden. Snarling, he hurled Logan at the creature's maw. "See ya, runt!" he roared. "Have fun as a pile of snake shit!" Then the dragonsnake's cavernous maw swallowed Logan whole, as the larger mutant escaped, fleeing the area

The dragonsnake didn't pursue, it had a full belly and wished to digest its meal properly. It began to retreat into the water once more. As it did so, a small green figure, clad in plain brown robes arrived in the clearing, taking a seat on a fallen tree by the water's edge just as the enormous serpent realised something was wrong. It screeched in pain as three blades, each about thirty or so centimeters long, pierced its side from within, literally carving an exit for the man to whom they belonged.

It was a _very_ irate Logan who emerged from the reptile's gut. Dragonsnakes were not known to be picky eaters, and the detritus covering the feral mutant certainly bore this out. Seeing what he guessed was a local, he pushed his way through the chest-deep water towards the observer.

"Hmm." The small creature was barely a third of Logan's own height, if that, and its? her? his? Voice was... odd. High but gravelly, was the only means of describing it that came to mind. "Already, I can tell. Strongly within you, flows the Force. Others like you there are, and train them I shall. But your own Darkness, brought with you, you have. Much work to do, we certainly have."

* * *

**Yavin 4, Rebellion Headquarters, Infirmary.**

She rose from her nightmares, guided by a man she'd never met. She knew what she had to do. Where she needed to go. There were things she had to do first, though. Tears fell as she mourned her brother, whom she'd never known, and now never would.

"Oh, Mistress Leia," came the synthetic voice of C-3PO, the protocol droid Luke had brought with him. "I'm so sorry. The search parties managed to recover what was left of Master Luke's X-wing. They couldn't locate Master Luke's body, although they believe Artoo can be repaired." The golden droid turned his photoreceptors, which served him as eyes, towards the floor. "He was a good Master, I think."

Leia smiled through her tears. Her adoptive father had once told her, "If you want the measure of a man, watch how he treats his servants, especially if they're droids. That will tell you what you need to know." Luke had treated the droids as friends. "He was my brother. He insisted on rescuing me with no thought of danger or reward. He was a hero."

She raised her face, eyes still full of tears, to the three men in the doorway: Han Solo, Wedge Antilles and General Jan Dodona. "Once we have honoured the fallen, there is somewhere I have to go."

* * *

**Coruscant, Imperial Throneroom.**

The dark-robed figure sat on the throne, gazing at the officers and moffs staring in terror at the body of the colonel who'd brought the bad news, trails of smoke rising from the smouldering corpse. The massive battle station, Tarkin's project, had been destroyed with all hands, somehow, by the rebels. Worse, in the same battle, the Sith Lord Darth Vader, had also perished. Yes, there were most likely others who _may_ replace him, but the mere fact that the implacable, seemingly unstoppable Dark Lord had been killed was reason enough for fear. The Emperor stood, to better emphsize his words.

"No quarter. The Rebellion _will _pay for this defeat, this insult to our superiority. I _am_ the supreme power in this galaxy, and they will perish at our hands."

All present bowed and renewed their vows of allegiance, but more than a few began to wonder if the man called Palpatine was starting to slip his gears.


	3. Chapter 3

_A Change in the Force._

_Contramancer's Disclaimer: I do not own either the X-Men or Star Wars. The following fanfiction story is most assuredly __not__canon by any measure, and is written solely for the pleasure of writing and having it read._

_A response to Whitetigerwolf's Mutant Jedi Challenge._

_**Chapter 3: Blackbird Rising.**_

_**The Swamps of Dagobah.**_

Victor Creed, other wise known as Sabertooth, wasn't famed for his intelligence. Not to imply he was stupid, it was more that his mind expressed itself in more animalistic terms. Unfortunately he seemed to combine the worst traits of both human and beast. As he moved through the marshes and fens, he followed a dark current, a presence that had no corporeal existence. He found himself in front of a cavern that he sensed as a wound in the planet. That which was calling him was in here...

Mere hours later, a starship of very sinister design powered its way from beneath the muck, a pitch-black shuttle forcing its way into the stars. The call was leading Sabertooth again, this time dragging him to his dark, dark destiny.

* * *

_**The Swamps of Dagobah (Yoda's Hut).**_

Logan sat cross legged in the main chamber of the small dwelling that the diminutive sentient ("Yoda, my name is. Come, come, all day we have not.") had led him to. As the Jedi master sat before him, the mutant took in all the sights, scents and sounds of the... hut? Shack? When the diminutive creature began to speak, he left off his musings and listened.

"No doubt, questions you have. Ask, ask and answer I shall." After a moment's puzzling, Logan figured out what the small alien was saying. The odd syntax almost _had_ to be deliberate, as it forced the listener to actually think about what was being said.

"Alright, then, bub," he said. "Let's start with the basics. First, where am I?"

"Dagobah, an uncharted system in the Outer Rim. A surge in the Force, there was. Through this surge, someone has reached, and to _you_ they connected. Such a strong connection to you, did they forge, that my training of you alone, useless would be." The green-skinned ancient nodded his head. "But alone, you were not. Your friends, your allies, train them I can. All but one. Those who bear the Darkness, I will not. The one who is as a star, I can not."

"I'm sure I'll figure that out eventually," Logan answered, "but the important question is, where are my friends?"

Yoda waved his stick at the darkening swamp. "Out there, they are. Their own trials, they must overcome. Three friends, one stranger, one enemy." Next, he gestured towards the mist-shrouded sky above them. "Out there, more friends you will find, more foes. But little time remains. Teach your friends, I shall. The stranger, control _you_ must teach." The word _you_ was emphasised by Yoda's stick prodding Logan's chest.

* * *

_**Somewhere in hyperspace.**_

Leia Organa gripped the armrests of her seat with enough force to whiten her knuckles. She hadn't been able to convince that smuggler and his wookie friend to stick around and help. Something about owing some Hutt money, not that it mattered. She did, however, convince General Dodonna to give her a ship and escorts. What remained of Red Squadron was with her, Wedge Antilles and his friend Hobbie Klivvian, their X-wings parallelling the course of her vessel, a heavily modified _Wayfarer-_class transport. The light freighter and the two fighters had a vast distance to cover, crossing the galaxy could take weeks, if not months, and might take longer as they still had to evade Imperial entanglements. At least they'd fixed Artoo. The feisty little astromech droid was making himself very useful as the _Midnight Raven_ raced towards Celanon, a journey of hours at best, to make the next leg of the journey, the duration of which no-one knew for certain, as the system was conspicuously absent from the astrogation charts.

Despite her uncertainty over exactly what she was feeling, the Alderaanian princess was convinced of where she needed to go, although she'd had a difficult time convincing the Rebel Alliance of it. In the end, she received permission, but it was a close-run thing. Once more staring out the viewport, she let the stars pass by.

* * *

**The Swamps of Dagobah (Ruined Clearing).**

Rogue was struggling within herself. Before Kurt's teleporting mishap, she'd acquired the powers of their dying Russian friend, holding on long enough for that transfer to become a permanent part of her. The downside was that she'd also gained several of his personality traits and memories. She was now as fluent in Russian as he had been, for example. Her mental struggle came from her attempts to assimilate the fragments of Colossus' psyche. The language wasn't a problem, that slid into place easily. Nor indeed were most of the memories and the artistic talent she now possessed. The true problems she was fighting involved the feelings and memories that revolved around Kitty. Somewhat unbelievably, Colossus had been chronically shy. He'd had a crush on the teenage mutant she called her friend, one he'd never spoken about. Before receiving these memories and emotions from the transfer, Rogue had thought of her friend as 'kinda cute, very smart, best friend', but now every time she looked at Kitty, she had one of these new feeling or memories point out exactly why the metallic mutant had fallen for her, even if he'd never said anything.

On its own, that would have been bad enough, but when she'd realised that Warhead could touch her skin without triggering her powers, her heart had started beating faster, and then he'd taken Kitty's hand. So Marie had a four-way emotional war going on inside her mind and heart, and trekking through some unknown, god-forsaken swamp was not the best time and place for such a battle to be resolved. Instead, she let out a huge sigh and kept going.

Shadowcat, on the other hand, although upset by her friend's death, was incredibly pragmatic, to the point that her feelings might be compared to Wolverine's. Indeed, mentally speaking, she had several traits in common with him, despite their mutations being nothing alike. As the local night closed in, the trio had set up a make-shift shelter and campfire, although Warhead had to use his powers to dry and ignite the wood for the latter. As the girls huddled closer to it for warmth, the nuclear mutant shrugged out of his trenchcoat, Hanging it over one end of the shelter.

"Aren't you cold?" Rogue asked him as he pulled the underlying T-shirt off over his head.

"Nah," he replied. "Part of my mutation means that 'standard thermal fluctuations towards either end of the scale' have no real effect on me. When the air starts to freeze, _then_ I start to worry. I'm also immune to all forms of radiation, as well as the effects of nuclear and stellar plasma. I just... suck up all the available energy, storing it until... Kaboom!" As he spoke, he demonstrated manually, putting both hands fisted before him and moving them apart suddenly, splaying the fingers to simulate an explosion. "The more I soak up, the bigger the bang." The girls' unthinking giggle at his words caused a twitch of pain to flicker across his features. Something they didn't fail to see.

"What's wrong?" Kitty asked, sudden concern wiping out any amusement from the young man's unintended double meaning. "I'm sorry, we didn't mean to hurt your feelings..." She trailed off, staring almost unbelieving at the tears that were pouring down their new friend's face.

"Not your fault," he sobbed, the grief too much to hold back. "I'll tell you why, but it ain't a pretty story, and it don't end 'happy ever after', either." Leo's accent grew stronger, and he began slipping back into his childhood mode of speech, when he was struck by the past like this. "Y'see, until I was sixteen, I had a best friend who was always there for me. She was wild, untamed, free, and her daddy didn't like me. Now, when my powers first triggered, I thought I was just soaking up energy, like the time some guy tried to mug me with a taser. Lia and I had just started dating at that time. She didn't freak, she just showed me her claws... literally. We were in love an' gonna get married as soon as we could.

"Her daddy had other plans. On her sixteenth birthday, we were gonna split for Vegas. Somehow, he found out. Powerful drunk, he was. He caught us, tied us up, and poured gas all over us. Then he lit us on fire. Didn't hurt me of course, I just kept hoovering the heat. Lia was burning, and her powers turned out to include some ferocious healing factor, she was healing just as quick, always in pain, and her daddy just standing there laughing. Then I hit my absorption limit and..."

Shadowcat and Rogue both held him, trying to protect him from a pain they were certain he'd always have. "It's alright," Kitty said in a low voice. "You don't have to say any more." Rogue nodded, agreeing with her friend."

"Yes, I do," he answered. "It just keeps coming back. I'd been on fire for an hour, and so had she, and he just kept drinking and throwing more fuel on the fire. He took the trouble to bring us to an open field, and when he heard the fire trucks, he started to run, and I... I exploded. My limits have been growing ever since, but the explosion was still very powerful. They never found her body, and he blamed me. Since I was sitting at the bottom of a radioactive crater, they brought in the MRD, and I've been running ever since."

After he'd finished, the two mutant girls held him, nothing more, but it was enough.

* * *

**Coruscant (Imperial Throneroom).**

The bounty hunter who stood before Emperor Palpatine was rumoured to be one of the best. He an enigma to almost the entire galaxy, who'd never seen his face. While this technically made him easier to impersonate, what he did to the last imposters to try using his name for their own gain scared all but the most stupid and suicidal away from the practice. Boba Fett was no small-time thug, he only went for the big targets. He'd been so close to catching that Han Solo when the word that he'd paid off his 'debt' to Jabba. Five minutes slower with that news and it could have been embarrassing.

Looking down at the data-pad in his hands, he committed the face of a young woman with brown hair and an aristocratic bearing to memory. He also scanned the bounty itself: Over 200,000 credits. She _must_ be important. Bowing slightly, he turned and left. Places to go, people to kill...

* * *

**The Swamps of Dagobah (Yoda's Hut).**

Kurt slid through the gathering dusk, seeming little more than a shadow himself, almost invisible in the darkness. He'd spotted Logan through the hut's small window, and sneaked in for a closer look. He wasn't expecting his friend's short green host to step out of the shadows in front of him.

"Welcome to my home, you are. Welcome, she is not." The stick rose to point at Mystique, concealed in the fog. "Already, too strong a grip on your mother, the Dark Side has." Kurt's eyes widened at the revelation. "Some day, saved she might be, but today, it is not. Stay she does, darkness consumes us all. Inside, your friend is. The others, join us by morning shall." As Nightcrawler stood, cautiously, still somewhat suspicious, the diminutive alien hobbled, his stick used as a cane, towards the shapeshifter in the distance.

Raven Darkholme had not enjoyed her sojourn on this marsh-ridden mudball. The truce with Nightcrawler notwithstanding (she had not enjoyed being reminded of the teleporter's father), the usual hazards of a swamp (leeches, for example) were _not_ friendly to her. When he disappeared into the fog, she'd waited for his signal that it might be safe to proceed. She was surprised by the metal tube she felt pressed against the base of her spine, and the voice that spoke from behind her.

"Time for you to leave, it is," Yoda said. "A device for you, I shall leave. My old shuttle, you shall take, and your destiny, you will find. Hold you, the Dark Side does, and forever will it cloud your path. Difficult to see, your future is, always in motion. Some day, perhaps, return to the light you might, but first your hatred, you must release."

Then the tube was gone, and when Mystique spun, raising her useless firearm for intimidation, all she saw was a complex device...


	4. Chapter 4

_A Change in the Force._

_Contramancer's Disclaimer: I do not own either the X-Men or Star Wars. The following fanfiction story is most assuredly __not__canon by any measure, and is written solely for the pleasure of writing and having it read._

_A response to Whitetigerwolf's Mutant Jedi Challenge._

_**Chapter 4: United They Stand.**_

_**The Swamps of Dagobah (Yoda's Hut)**_

Logan and Kurt were sparring in front of the diminutive dwelling when Warhead, Rogue and Shadowcat emerged from the marshes. Each of the three had their own methods of avoiding the leeches that infested such places and happily used them. Low-level radiation was enough for Leo to drive the parasites away, while Kitty remained intangible for most of her travels, and Marie used her recently-acquired steel form to advantage. They were tired, hungry, and covered in the assorted detritus that one picks up when slogging through waist-deep swamp-water.

Kurt immediately teleported to them, concern written all over his face, and was quietly reassured that they were fine. As Warhead collapsed onto the damp soil by the hut, he registered the presence of the small, green alien. "Uhh, hi?"

Yoda looked down into the young man's face and smiled. "Teach you, I cannot," he said. "Prevent it, your powers do. Perhaps, control you may learn, but to touch the Force, beyond you it is."

"_Well, that was helpful,_" Leo thought, with more than a little sarcasm, as the strange alien turned away, his attention drawn to Warhead's companions.

"Hmmm," Yoda continued. "Yes, yes. These two, teach them I can. Strong are they in the Force. You," here he pointed at Rogue, "touch others and take from them , you do. Train you I shall, and to touch without taking you _will_ learn." The diminutive Jedi master turned his full attention to Shadowcat. "You, child, are different. In you the Force flows, stronger than any I have seen since... No, neither here nor there that is. Teach you, train you, and a Jedi you can yet become."

* * *

_**Coruscant, Imperial Throneroom.**_

The stranger, despite his similarities, was neither Cathar nor Togorian. According to the best medics and scientists at Palpatine's disposal, this Victor Creed was human. He was just more so than most, and touched strongly by the Dark Side, more strongly than even Vader had been. It was a danger to train an apprentice so strong, but if... if he could master the transfer of his essence to another vessel, then this Creed would be a perfect body for him. Looking down at the kneeling feral, the Emperor smiled, an expression that had shivers trailing up and down the spines of every sentient in his throne-room, save the one before him.

"You kneel before me, and pledge your fealty, Victor Creed, and I reward you," he loudly proclaimed. "Now rise, Darth Primal, my new right hand, and serve this Empire!"

Creed stood slowly, letting them all see his physical size, and the savage grace in his feral body, intimidating them all. This Palpatine had a scent to him that was close to Magneto's, the smell of greed, ambition and a lust for power. Sabertooth liked that.

* * *

_**Dagobah, High Orbit.**_

"I don't understand it, your Highness," C-3P0 stated. The golden droid, a little more scuffed than he might have liked, was still with her, and seldom far from Artoo. Artoo on the other hand was very much the worse for wear. His repairs had been of such magnitude that he'd been virtually reassembled from spare parts and mesh-tape. The result was not pretty, with fusion-weld seams scarring the astromech's surface, but he was functional. The protocol droid continued. "Artoo has found no signs of technological advancement of sufficient magnitude to explain the radiation readings, nor is he able to tell us why the bursts are so intermittent. There is a slim chance numbering 4356-to-1 that the planet is an unregistered weapons testing facility, but in that case we should expect to find some evidence of at least observational facilities, if not full blown military complexes. I am at a loss to explain it."

The holographic display showed the planet below them. It was a mist-covered swamp world, and the scans had trouble penetrating the cloud cover, and the abundant life-signs on the primitive world would provide superlative cover if someone had come here to hide. She vaguely recalled her father speaking of his past and the Clone Wars, but suppressed it. Somewhere down there, in the midst of that chaotic soup of a biosphere, someone was waiting for her. Who, she didn't know. Why, she had no idea.

Again, as she had so many times in the past several weeks, she rubbed at her forearms, pressing hard to relieve a residual ache. At the last Core World, she'd been diagnosed with some sort of calcium deficiency, and been prescribed an intensive course of supplements for it, and her metabolism had become somewhat heightened. She didn't know... there was so much she didn't know... why she'd been feeling this way. The medics and doctors had had no idea either, and she couldn't afford the time it would take for comprehensive tests to find out.

And now here she was, trying to figure out why there was a radiation signature on this backwater world that shouldn't be developed enough for it. A hidden fusion generator might account for it, but a generator that put out that much energy should be powering a city, or a defensive installation at the least. But there was no sign of that... Just like that, she'd had enough. In a snap decision that would have been uncharacteristic before the loss of Luke... her Jedi-apprentice twin brother that she'd never known about... she gave her orders. Rogues two and five, make ready for atmospheric entry. We can argue until the rontos fall over and still not find out anything. Let's go down there and see for ourselves."

* * *

_**The Swamps of Dagobah (Clearing... at least it is now...)**_

Leo leaned back against the tree, exhausted. His explosive capacity wasn't growing any more. The clearing he was looking out at hadn't been there yesterday, before he got the idea of having that transceiver target him with microwaves to see what his upper limit now was. Then it had been swamp and trees, now it was polished black glass a good three kilometers across. The others had been impressed by the energy he'd released. The obsidian that resulted would have given starport plascrete landing platforms a run for durability. It was also a little intimidating, according to Logan. Right there was a key point that had the girls discussing something quietly off to one side. Yoda, however, merely nodded.

"When strong enough in the Force, one is, commonplace, such terrible feats seem," he had said quietly. The microwave device had put out a steady stream of heat that had only been visible to the nuclear mutant, and it had taken six hours at its highest setting to make him explode. Even at that limit, he'd managed to hold back the explosion for a whole thirty seconds. "Progress you have made, and of that,not a small amount."

As the others mutants and the ancient Jedi moved forwards, Wolverine's gaze snapped up towards the sky. "Someone's here," he said. "Not here, now, but... close, and...she'll be here soon. She's... there!" He pointed into the mist that constantly shrouded the planet, though it had been pushed back somewhat by Warhead's recent detonation. Now that everyone was aware, they could hear the sound of stressed repulsorlifts in an atmosphere.

Leo looked in the direction Logan had pointed, and confirmed the feral mutant's instincts. "I can see three big heat sources, two about fighter-size, the other one's a little bigger than what you told me the Blackbird was. Starships recently entered the atmosphere is my guess."

It was only a few minutes before the three starships appeared, proving the young man correct. The ready-made landing field that Warhead had accidentally and fortuitously provided was adequate for the vessels to land at one end as the X-men, Warhead and Yoda waited patiently nearby. "If I'd've known we were going to have tourists, I'd've set up a stall for merchandise," Warhead commented, to Kitty's amusement.

The two fighters were long, one-man craft, each with an astromech droid (a sentient robot, from what the Jedi master had told them). Wide wings near the rear of each supported four engines and laser cannons, and from the look of them those wings could split from two to four, forming, at a guess, an X-shaped wing array. Leo shook his head. If the military mind in this galaxy was anything like the ones back home, they were probably called X-wings. "_Hmm,_" he mused, making connections in his head. "_X-men, X-wings... I don't think it's a coincidence._"

The boarding ramp of the larger vessel, a multi-purpose freighter, by the appearance, if that module on one side was anything to go by, descended from the belly of the ship, and even as the pilots of the fighters emerged, five figures emerged strode cautiously down the ramp. The first was a soldier of some sort, but obviously not from any regular military, possibly some kind of special forces? The way he carried himself told Logan quite a story. He wasn't human, that was for sure, and resembled nothing so much as a werewolf from the movies back on Earth. The bulky black weapon he carried was some kind of rifle, obviously. The next being was human, and had recently been ill or injured, if Wolverine's nose was right, although there was a pungent smell about him, as though he'd been doused in some kind of chemical. Come to that, there was a similar smell emanating from one of the fighter pilots, if an older one. Third was one of the astromechs, it exterior surface a patchwork of welds and mis-matched parts. There was no question why it wasn't in one of the fighters, as those very welds would not fit the precision engineered sockets for such droids. Following this was a golden humanoid droid, albeit one that was far from polished. A constant, if low volume, stream of complaints about the environment and its impact on mechanical and electronic sentients was being ignored by all the newcomers.

It was the last person on the ramp that Logan had been waiting for. As she stepped into view, he took the the chance to look at her, to really _see_ her for the first time, and not through this strange connection in the Force. She was of medium height, with an inner beauty and an aura of command that she wore naturally, as though it were her birthright, which as a princess, even of a destroyed world, it was. Her brown hair was extremely long, easily reaching her lower back, he somehow knew, although at present it was braided, and the resulting ropes of her hair wound around her head like a natural crown. Her blue eyes were filled with a recent sorrow, and a desperate hope, and he could feel the loss she'd gone through. The only thing keeping her sane right now was the link to him, although there were those who would argue it more likely to _cause _insanity than prevent it. Her clothes were of a utilitarian cut, almost a military uniform, except that such a thing would stand out and get them killed. He became aware that she had frozen in place when she saw him, and images from her memories flowed through his mind...

_Standing on the bridge of a massive battle-station, forced to watch as her homeworld was obliterated, able to do nothing... Luke lifting the Stormtrooper helmet from his head and proclaiming he was there to rescue her... Torture at the hands of one she would later discover to be her own father... Her last life-day celebration, with her adoptive parents and childhood friends all about her... The unrelenting agony of a twin she'd never known dying to save them all... The sudden forging of this connection between herself and this feral man... The constant ache in her arms..._

That last jolted him, it was a familiar sensation to the memory-damaged mutant, although he couldn't pin down why, so he shook it off to investigate later, and simply allowed himself her name. "Leia," he whispered, almost a verbal caress.

The memories that flowed through Leia were no less telling than the ones _he'd_ received, even if they were fragmented. He literally had no idea who he really was, not even how old he was, and with his... mutant... abilities it was unlikely anyone ever would. Even so, she had glimpses into the good and bad memories that still sat within the man called Wolverine, and the people he knew through out that time.

_Meeting Xavier... Fighting against Sabertooth... Joining the X-men... Confronting Magneto and realising the difficulties in fighting him with a metallic skeleton... Dealing with the Brotherhood whenever it showed up... The death of his beloved Jean at his claws, because she had to be stopped... The advent of the Mutant Response Division and the latest iteration of Sentinels... Meeting Warhead for the first time... The Rift in reality that dragged them here..._

Struggling against the overwhelming tide of emotional imagery, she found, there in her mind, something solid to hold onto, something to keep her steady... or rather, some_one_. She could feel him, right there, and a softness she hadn't felt since the Death Star obliterated Alderaan came over her as she spoke his name. "Logan," she murmured, barely audible even to herself, despite the sharpening of her senses over the past few days. Besides herself, Artoo and Threepio heard her … and so did Logan, just as she heard his whisper.

"Although interesting, I find it," said Yoda, startling the two of them from their combined memories, "preparing to leave, we should be. Sad I will be, miss this home, I shall. Yet broken, the galaxy is, and already, reaching out to repair itself, it is. Interesting times, we now live in."

* * *

Kitty finished packing her minimal belongings, then turned to Rogue. None of them had much, so the other girl had also finished. That was one up-side to being an inter-dimensional castaway, she supposed, but couldn't bring herself to feel good about it. She was an honest girl, at least within herself, and she'd noticed the feelings waking up within her, regarding Leo. She hadn't done anything about them, convinced it was just a crush, but now she wasn't so sure. After the explosion he'd demonstrated, she saw that Nightcrawler was somewhat scared of Warhead, and missed seeing that it scared Leo just as much. It was an involuntary thing, beyond his control, and he was terrified that someday he would 'go nuclear' and kill innocents... like his first love. The young man was still hurting from that, even if he knew it was the girl's father who was to blame. That night in the swamp was the first night he'd gotten to truly mourn, to grieve for her, without the threat of the MRD above his head.

Kitty looked at Rogue, who returned her gaze with one of her own. The power-draining mutant had come to a limited degree of control over her abilities, but she had to be absolutely calm to do so. Maybe someday she'd be able to turn her power on and off like a light-bulb, but not yet. They had discovered, by accident, that while she was in her metallic form, her natural ability to drain others did _not_ do so, and that had been a very happy day for Rogue. It was an awkward silence, both had something to say, and no idea how to begin. When both of them broke the tension by saying "So..." at the same time, they also broke into laughter, with Rogue gesturing for her friend to proceed.

"Okay, then," Kitty said, "I was going to say, I've seen the way you've been looking at Leo when you get the chance, and we both know your power doesn't affect him for some reason, but after today, how do you feel about him?"

"Ah... dunno, sugah," Rogue replied, the question spawning more questions, as she struggled to get her thoughts straight. "Just because ah can touch him, doesn't mean ah should touch him, or that ah should... ah dunno, fall in love with him or somethin'." She saw Kitty's expression shift a little when she said that. It had been hard work for her to sort out her own mind after absorbing Peter's powers and psyche. "You know how my power works, right?" Kitty nodded. "Well, this is harder than ah thought, but remember how Colossus had that crush on you? When ah got his powers, ah got his mind, and that means ah also got how he felt. About you. It's still there, in the back of my mind, and if ah let myself, ah could just let it become part of me, or fade away. Master Yoda's helped me a lot in that regard, just like he's helped me with control of my power. But ah know you're not into me like that, so ah'll probably let it fade. Now, ah _could_ fall for our nuclear nibble-worthy out there, but _should_ ah let myself? It's all confusing."

Kitty's mind was stuttering between absolute shock, with nothing at all there, and frantic activity with thousands of thoughts half-completed before the next freeze, then completed after it. She'd never suspected that Rogue had absorbed that part of Peter's psyche, despite knowing how it worked almost as well as the other mutant did. It threw an entirely new wrinkle into the mix, and the teenager wasn't certain of what to do about it. "Um, thanks for telling me, but that doesn't make what I'm going to say any easier." Thinking hard, she spoke carefully. "When I first met Peter, I had the worst crush on him, but that faded as time passed. I was a science buff, he was an artist. I followed logic, he followed intuition. Then there's that gloom he always felt about leaving home for Xavier's. Once the crush faded enough that I started thinking 'whiny Russian hick', when I saw him, that's when I figured out it was _just_ a crush, even if it could have become more. But _you_ aren't Peter."

She paced back and forth for a minute, then spoke again, with ordered thoughts. "After Warhead's explosion, how did you feel?" she asked Rogue.

Rogue's face contorted. "At first ah was scared," she admitted, "and then ah realised he hated that part of himself, and ah just wanted to cry. Every time he goes off like that, it reminds him of what he lost, and ah just wanted to hold him till he stopped hurtin'."

Kitty's smile was a feeble thing, but she spoke before her friend could ask what was wrong. "At least we're on the same page there," she said. "I feel the same, but I don't want to stop holding him when he stops hurting." Her mind was utter chaos. "_There, I said it,_" she thought.

Rogue was stunned by her friend's frank admission. Kitty _liked_ Leo, and not just friendly like, either. She looked into herself, and thought hard. The feelings from Colossus were fading, and she still had the choice to make them her own or let them go. Kitty was a good friend even without that, and this very conversation said she thought Rogue was an important friend, or she wouldn't be having it. It all came down to Leo. How did Rogue feel about him? Was it bad enough to make her fight her best friend in this universe? Could she hurt Kitty just to have him?

No, she decided, she couldn't. Even without the emotions from Peter, she wanted Kitty happy. Examining her own feelings brought her to another conclusion, too. After so many years, she could fall in love with the nuclear mutant, and even more, she wanted to. But she didn't want Kitty hurt... "Kitty," she spoke in a small voice, worried about the possible outcomes of her question, even as she heard the other X-men, including Warhead after Logan had said he was welcome, began their exodus towards the _Raven_. "How do you feel... about me?"

Kitty was stunned. About Rogue? That was something that had never crossed her mind. It wasn't something she _could_ answer right off the top of her head. Rogue was her best friend, and Kitty would die to save her... and that _was_ the answer, she realised. "I love you," she said, putting words in the open. "I don't know how much or in what way, or even how you want me to, though. Are we sisters? Best friends? More? Less? I can't answer that now, because I don't know. I _do_ know I'd _die_ for you, though. In an instant, without hesitation. Only Logan comes close, and he's more a father-figure. Why are you asking?" She had her suspicions, but she wanted to hear from her friend before setting them in stone.

"If you _can _love me, and ah can love you by embracing those feelings from Peter, and _both_ of us love Leo, then... can we all share?"

Leo's knock on the door was the worst timed in the history of the galaxy, they later agreed.


	5. Chapter 5

**_A Change in the Force._**

_Contramancer's Disclaimer: I do not own either the X-Men or Star Wars. The following fanfiction story is most assuredly not__canon by any measure, and is written solely for the pleasure of writing and having it read._

_A response to Whitetigerwolf's Mutant Jedi Challenge._

_**Chapter 5: Small Changes Made Large...**_

_**Somewhere in Hyperspace.**_

The _Midnight Raven _and her escort raced through the well-travelled lanes of hyperspace, aiming for the pre-arranged rendezvous with the Rebellion's forces. The bunks and quarters aboard were a little crowded, as they hadn't expected to find so many passengers, or they would have used a different module for the _Wayfarer_-class transport. As things stood, they were forced to bunk in shifts, and the supplies would be running low before they arrived at Eriadu to resupply. From there they would skip towards their real destination in the Greater Javin cluster, but that was a far distance away.

Leia Organa gazed across the bay at the man she'd unwittingly bound herself to through the force. He was a warrior, of that there was no doubt, disciplined beyond what most would expect, but he had rough edges. He reminded her a little bit- _just_ a little bit, mind you- of that scruffy smuggler that had rescued her alongside... Luke... The sorrow struck her again, the incredible, crippling loss, and Logan paused in his sparring, catching the lightsabre of the tiny Jedi Master on his claws, where it sparked and spat, unable to even so much as scratch the metal... quite impressive when dealing with something capable of cutting starship armour plates. As the tears blurred her vision, he strode over to her, offering his shoulder for her support, some place to weep and grieve properly.

"There, there, darlin'," he said, and while she'd heard him use that form of address with Kitty and Marie, or Shadowcat and Rogue to use their code-names, it still felt special when he said it to her. "Let it all out, it does no good in there."

Settling into his arms, clinging to the lifeline of his presence, both physically and in the Force, she told him about how she met her brother.

* * *

Warhead sat in the engineering workshop, helping the scarred droid the crew and the princess called Artoo with some precision fusion welds, and plasma cutting. His powers allowed him a degree of control over such things that even the astromech would envy. Between them they were able to smooth out many of the welding scars on Artoo's shell. As they worked, they were aware of the audience they had in the two mutant girls who looked in every now and then. Kitty was busy figuring out the functions of the computers in this galaxy, and learning about the hypernet, but she still looked in on Leo every chance she got. Rogue, on the other hand was studying the controls and learning the basics of flying the starship, after learning that most vessels were possessed of similar controls. Oh, there was some variance, but it was easy enough to figure those out once you knew what to look for.

The two mutant girls had not had time to continue their talk, being on alternate shifts for bunk time, and Neither wanted to broach the subject with Leo until they knew what was going on between _them_. All in all, it was a very frustrating trip for both Kitty and Marie.

* * *

The _Raven_'s med-bay wasn't the most advanced, so they had to explain to Leia and her friends what a mutant was without the technological back-up. It was a necessary lecture, and Logan, Kurt, Kitty and Rogue weren't as accomplished with genetic science as Professor Xavier or even Ororo had been. They would have given a lot for Hank McCoy to have been there. Surprisingly, Leo came to the rescue, metaphorically speaking, having minored in genetics and biology while he pursued his majors: Physics, astrophysics, nuclear physics and quantum physics. He was at least as intelligent as Shadowcat, but had taken a different academic path.

"Basically, your Highness," he began, only to be interrupted.

"It's Leia," she insisted. He grinned, and nodded.

"Very well, _Leia_," he continued, a gleam in his eye. "In our universe, some humans acquired superhuman abilities. Much like the Force seems to do here, there were telepaths, telekinetics and energy manipulators."

"Like you," Wedge Antilles spoke up.

"Exactly," Warhead said. "A lot of people were considered _altered humans_. This meant that they'd received their powers from an outside influence, such as an accident, or cybernetics. There was a class of techno-heroes who used powered armour to level the playing field, and then there were those whose powers were encoded into their very genes at birth."

It was easy enough for Leia to make the connection. "Mutants."

"Indeed. There was a government agency who felt it was their duty to keep track of and assess the threat levels of mutants. This resulted in five classes of mutant. First, and most common, are the Sigma class, mutants whose powers are completely dormant until some event 'kickstarts' them. Then we have the Gamma class mutants, who often had some physical external manifestation like Kurt's fur, tail and extremities. They also often had additional gifts, which is why he is extraordinarily agile, can climb on walls, fade away in shadows and teleport. If it weren't for his appearance, he'd be a Beta at least. The Beta class mutant has powers and an almost normal physical appearance, but they usually have some major drawback with those powers, like Rogue's power-draining. Before we started training with Master Yoda, she couldn't turn it off at all, much like I can't prevent myself absorbing loose energy I come in contact with. Wolverine and Rogue are Betas. Kitty is an Alpha. She has the ability to decrease her density until she is practically intangible, in which state she can disrupt electrical fields as she passes through them. Her power is completely under her control, and unbelievably versatile. It is possible she has a secondary mutation lurking in the wings that would shift her density the other way, but only time will tell."

Wedge was glad he'd let the other two take the X-wings for this trip, he was learning so much. "Wait up, you said there was _five_ classes of mutant. What's the last one?"

Warhead sighed. "Omega class. These mutants can come from any of the three other classes, and would be classified as such were it not for one factor," he explained. "Power. Sheer, unadulterated power. Xavier was an Omega class telepath, and with some external augmentation, he was able to access every mind on a planet of over twelve billion people. Omega class telekinetics could shift _moons_. Omega class mutants are exceedingly dangerous because of that power, and what could happen if they're not careful." He dropped into silence, his mind once more on the past.

Leia spoke softly, striving not to upset or startle him. "You never said what class _you_ were."

"That's raht, sugah," came the voice of Rogue from the hatchway behind her. "He didn't. He doesn't lahk t' think of it." Her odd accent (They said it was a 'Deep South' accent where they came from) was thicker than usual. She dropped her voice to a whisper. "He's an Omega. He can generate nuclear plasma, lahk y'all find in a star, and manipulate it, he can see and is immune to radiation of all sorts, and he absorbs energy until he cain't hold any more."

Leia knew that wasn't all of it, because that all sounded incredibly useful, and Rogue's next words confirmed the Alderaanian princess' fears.

"An' when he cain't hold no more, he explodes, and totally devastates a one-and-a-half klick radius."

Leia stared at the unassuming young man, who was probably only a couple of years younger than she at most. She could sense a deep pain from that statement, but an old one. Clearing her throat, she asked another question. "So what happens to a Sigma that... manifests? Awakens? Whatever the proper word is."

Leo shook his head as he returned to the conversation. "Depends on the circumstances. Some Sigmas who manifest, you were right the first time, have powers that are influenced by the circumstances that caused it. For example, a Sigma who gets caught in a fire may develop pyrokinetic abilities. But a manifested Sigma could fit into any of the other four classes of mutant."

* * *

Leia's rest cycle was interrupted again. It wasn't the dreams, those were normal, at least for someone in her mental state. Master Yoda had actually taught her a meditative state that allowed her to process what these figments of her traumatised psyche were telling her, and come to terms with them. No, it was the others in the bunk chamber. Leo gave off a constant, low level sub-sonic buzz, annoying as anything, and if that were all it was, it might be bearable. The real problems lay in the fact that _only_ Logan could hear it, other than her and the droids, and in the _smells_ she kept getting distracted by.

Everyone had a unique scent, she understood that, having spoken with Wookiees and Shistavanen about such things. What was hard for her to deal with was being able to tell the difference. There was an acrid, bitter smell for Warhead, an almost metallic tang for Rogue and an animalistic musk for Logan... one that was very appealing... She ruthlessly dragged her thoughts from that line, lest she spend a lot longer in the refresher than intended. Splashing her face with water a couple of times to help her feel better, she stepped out of the small chamber. She froze as she caught a scent...

"Tough night?" Logan's voice came from one of the shadows by the bulkhead, and she jumped a little, startled. "You wouldn't have been asking those questions earlier _just_ from intelligence gathering, would you? There's something else."

Sighing, the Alderaanian made a decision. "I've been having... odd sensations lately," she admitted. "Ever since this... this link between us was forged, I've been getting little bursts of heightened senses, and my forearms have been aching. I was wondering if the link was changing me. Now that I know about Sigmas, I suspect it has..." Her voice trailed off in worry, and she whispered her last words, somehow _knowing_ he'd hear them. "I'm not sure how to take it."

Logan was silent for a few moments, as though weighing what he was about to say. "This ache, is it a sharp, almost cutting, burn?" he asked, and when she nodded he shook his head. "From what Yoda said, the Force is capable of _acting_ on its own, and making little changes is a way for it to make big changes... Here, let's find out something."

He extended the first claw on his right hand, gesturing for her to pay attention to the way his muscles flexed as he did, a task she complied with almost eagerly... "_Down girl, bad thoughts,_" she berated herself mentally as she paid a little more general attention to his musculature than was necessary.

"The first thing I want to check," he said, in a calm conversational tone, "is for the presence of a Healing Factor." So saying, he made light nick on her forearm, deep enough to draw blood and cause some injury, but not deep enough to be significant. The sudden pain shocked her, and she jumped back, snarling at him as she curled the injured limb to her chest. Deep inside her, a feral creature struggled free, merging with the rest of her psyche, and she brought up her other arm, the right one, and curled and twisted her hand in a particular manner.

The bone claws that erupted from her hand startled both of them, and shocked Leia back into rational thought. There had been pain as she forced the claws free of her flesh, and if she was honest, the pain from the cut Logan had inflicted was gone. Glancing at the arm revealed that the injury had already healed. Switching her gaze back and forth between arm and claws, she muttered the question even as she thought it. "How? How is this happening?"

* * *

Leo didn't truly understand the Force. It was an energy field, Yoda had told him, that connected everything, that bound the universe together, but it was a form of energy he couldn't 'see'. His vision extended into the infrared and ultraviolet spectra far enough that he see x-rays, gamma rays and heat signatures _by temperature_, yet he could not see the Force. Maybe it functioned on a quantum level, that would explain a lot...

Dragging his thoughts away from the idle musings over the nature of the Force, he looked carefully at the readings the admittedly limited med-bay on the Raven gave him regarding Leia's changes. The claws showed up on the scan quite vividly, a part of her as much as Wolverine's were of him. Her senses were heightened, not yet at Logan's level, but getting there. The last piece of the puzzle was the healing factor that had already replaced the amounts of blood she had volunteered for testing. Leo had been able to make up for the lack of spectrographic equipment with his own powers, and was forming a theory. It was kind of out there, but it did fit the facts...

"Got anything?" Logan's voice broke the silence. The X-man was concerned, worried that his abilities had somehow become contagious, but his gruff-natured exterior concealed it well.

"I have... something," the newest X-man replied. He still couldn't believe that even in this universe, the feral mutant had trusted him with that. In all the years of being a fugitive in his own reality, he'd never thought _that_ would happen. He'd just wanted help to control his powers. He returned to the point. "I don't totally understand how the Force works," he said, "so I can't say for sure that this is what happened, but my _guess_ is that the link between the two of you allowed it to see your powers as something she would need to survive, and shift her DNA enough that she developed the same powers. It's shaky logic, though. From what I can tell, she was a Sigma before this happened, I think. If this were an advanced genetics lab I might be able to say for sure, but as it is..." He paused for a moment, then went ahead. "I think _our_ presence in this universe has kick-started the manifestation of mutants. So far, there's only the Princess to judge it by, but that's what my gut is telling me."

Logan snorted. "Coming from you, I think I'll trust that guess," he assured the nuclear mutant. "C'mon, according to Artoo, we reach Eriadu tomorrow, and I want everyone ready for the shopping trip, if we can keep it under the Imperial radar."

* * *

_**Dagobah (High Orbit).**_

The dark-cloaked figure stood staring out the bridge viewscreen at the mist-shrouded planet far below. A few months after fleeing it, he was back, and payback would be his...

A nervous Imperial Navy officer, an ensign, he thought, was giving his report. "The abundant ambient life-signs of the planet are obscuring our scans, rendering our readings useless, Lord Primal," he said, praying that this man was nothing like the infamous Vader when it came to bad news.

The harsh, gravelly snarl very nearly caused the ensign to soil himself, a fact that he would _not_ be taunted about later. "Well, that suggests its own solution, then doesn't it?" The entity once called Victor Creed, or Sabertooth, asked. "Captain, orbital bombardment. I want that planet's surface reduced to cinders. While that's happening, keep a scanner tracking any thermonuclear events. That should pinpoint them if they're here. If they're not, that's another matter, but first, let's remove all them pesky life-signs, shall we?"

The full fire-power of an Imperial Star Destroyer was brought to bear, and Dagobah's surface burned. It was no Death Star, but it would do for now...

* * *

_**Eriadu (Eriadu Spaceport, Eriadu City)**_

Kurt sat in the security of the _Midnight Raven_, unwilling to set foot outside the ship. With the non-human slavery acts, combined with his own appearance, it was deemed best that he remain here. His training with Yoda had centred on the use of lightsabres, unsurprising given his skill at fencing, and he was still getting used to the way they balanced. There was very little that a lightsabre couldn't cut through, only a handful of materials were sturdy enough to stand up to such punishment. The first stop, Yoda had insisted, had to include the basic parts to assemble at least one lightsabre for each of them. The _important_ components they would find once they were sufficiently in tune wit the Force. Until then, it was the practice blades, which stung on contact, but inflicted no real damage.

The German mutant had begun to integrate the use of three such lightsabres (one for each hand and another for his tail) into a naturally acrobatic style. He was hard put to keep up with Yoda's single blade, but then, the diminutive Jedi Master did have the better part of a millennium's experience under his belt. It was during the course of such practise sessions that they had discovered Wolverine's greatest advantage against a lightsabre wielder: his adamantium-laced skeleton. The rare alloy, reputed to be virtually indestructible in their home reality, apparently continued to be so here. If one were _expecting_ the contained plasma that made up the blade to sever a limb, and it failed to do so... The benefits of such a surprise were obvious.

As he watched the security screens and comlink channels, Rogue sat cross-legged in the cargo bay, striving to centre her mind. She was watched and monitored by Master Yoda, and he _said_ she was making progress, but it was hard to believe with so little to show for it. Her abilities in the Force were not super-impressive, as her focus seemed to lie in amplifying her physical abilities.

* * *

The retail district of Eriadu City was crowded, with many of the people leaving some form of tribute at the Tarkin Memorial, a fact that had Leia muttering indignantly under her breath. There were more than a few curses in their. Stormtroopers were present everywhere as the Imperial-aligned planet mourned the loss of its 'hero'.

"Hero, is it?" Logan heard the other half of his link clearly. "He destroyed a pacifistic society, billions of innocent lives, to make a point! The man was a monster!"

Taking her shoulder, Logan pulled her close as a pair of the ever-present white-armoured soldiers passed close. Fortunately, they seemed to take Leia's trembling for grief rather than the rage she was actually feeling, or who knew what would have happened. Kitty and Leo, behind them, were scrutinised carefully by the one on the right, but apparently didn't ring any bells. They'd made the purchase of enough food to see them to the rendezvous, and the ship had been fueled and charged, and was ready to go. Leia and Wedge were now acclimating the three mutants to the realities of galactic society. It was unlucky for the other two members of Red Squadron, but X-wings were too easily recognisable as the preferred starfighters of the Rebel Alliance.

As the small group made their way back to the spaceport, they made some conversation, mostly discussions on the state of the Empire and its citizens, unaware of the armoured figure following them...


End file.
